The Peace Offering
by C.S. Bascom
Summary: Sorta like Ray Bradbury, with a heluva punchline


The Peace Offering

Tavish lazily waddling out of the back of the house. He was met by a cross look from the young Martian sitting in the kitchen.

"I still don't trust him," he said negatively.

"Aselfod, you know what I've told you about saying that." His mother snapped while looking over her shoulder.

"Yes mother, sorry mother," Aselfod apologized, bowing his head. Tavish walked next to him and started drinking from his bowl.

"Don't be sorry, hun, just try not to do it again." She was nimbly working her long tan fingers over the top of the crystal stove. She maneuvered wisps of colored smoke to form the Martian equivalent of bacon and eggs.

She put the product onto a clearer-than-glass plate, and put it in front of her son. Tavish finished his drink, and waddled out into the next room. In a moment he would ask to be let outside so he could dig. He hoped to get to that interesting smell he had been after.

Elenfore sat down next to her son, and started again.

"Your father had to accept it from the Earthians, they gave the little creature as a peace offering. Your father is the ambassador after all, he had no choice."

"It was for the good of the people," Aselfod echoed from many talks he had gotten before.

"I just get this weird feeling about it, I don't trust it. It's probably nothing, but I just get bad, bad…vibes." He started eating his breakfast.

"Well," said Elenfore standing up, "You can talk to your father when he gets back from Earth, he should be coming home this evening." She walked away to clean and do other things that Martian stay at home moms do.

When Aselfod finished breakfast, Tavish came bounding up from where ever he was before with a delicate leash in his mouth. He wanted to go outside.

"Okay, Tavish," said Aselfod, "I'll take you out."

A long time ago, or so Aselfod had heard, Mars was a beautiful place. But the ancients were a warring people, and after the Cartarean Wars the after math left the world bleak and red. It wasn't always red, the legend says that when The Great Mother saw how much blood of her children was spilt, she wept blood, and the planet was stained red. When the dust settled, the ancients had buried their warring ways, for fear it would strike again the fighting spirit in them all. Aselfod, if the stories were true, hated the ancients, for ruining his planet. He was very glad his people were peaceful.

From tears or not, red it was, for miles and miles all around, just red and rocky nothingness. Tavish was tied to a rock; Aselfod was sitting on a rock near by. He was watching the little furry thing dig a hole in the ground. He would stop every so often, bark, growl then come up and sit by his hole in pride. Then suddenly he would return to his digging.

"What did dad say you were again?" Aselfod asked Tavish.

"A dog, was that it? Did the Earthians call you a 'dog'?"

Tavish snorted.

"I'll take that as a yes." Aselfod looked off in the distance. He wondered what it was like before the War, when his people lived in huge cities, and there were forests all around. He had heard that there were forests on Earth, his father talked about them in great detail the last time he visited home. He also brought Tavish the last time he came home.

"I wonder if he'll bring me back another present." Said Aselfod, he turned around, and Tavish dived back into his hole, and was kicking up plumes of dirt. They wafted away in the slight breeze and low gravity.

"Did you know that, Tavish? Did you know that you were given to me as a present?" Tavish stopped digging, dirt stopped flying, then it started up again.

"Bah, what do you know, your just a stupid dog." Aselfod was sure he pronounced "dog" properly.

Aselfod was called in by his mother, he ran quickly up to the glimmering house, leaving Tavish outside to his digging. He dug outside for hours, until sunset. Elenfore asked her son to get go out and get him in the dim twilight, and under the moons.

The mound around the hole was massive, just about half the height of Aselfod, he complemented the small dog.

"Wow Tavish," he said approaching the hole in the growing darkness. "You really dug deep, huh? Tavish? Where are ya?" Aselfod peered around for any sign of the dog. He found many tracks, and his leash. He suddenly became very worried. Not for the dogs safety, but rather for his own. His father would be back in the hour, and here he lost the present his father had gotten from Earth.

"Tavish! Tavish! Come here boy!" Aselfod shouted in the thin atmosphere. He was standing right above the hole now, he looked down it, and something caught his eye.

It wasn't in the hole, but just outside, it was covered in red dirt, and it wasn't alone.

Aselfod held it in his nimble hand, it fit amazingly well when he gripped it. He gave the handle a squeeze, and several lights when on. He noticed a interesting little lever that his first and second finger seemed so comfortable on. He gave the lever a slight pull, the object hummed and made a tone that gave the impression it was charging. Frightened, Aselfod quickly tossed it away, where it quickly stopped and its lights went out. It seemed dead.

Presently, Tavish came up out of the hole, with another similar object in his mouth. He came near Aselfod and when he reached for it, Tavish pulled away and growled. Tavish wanted to play tug-of-war.

"Tavish, drop it," Tavish cocked his head, then dropped it when he saw Aselfod wasn't going to play. "Come on, lets go." He stood up and grabbed Tavish, holding him under his smooth arm pit. After a moment's hesitation, he reached down and grabbed one of the objects, in hopes that one of his parents would know what it was.

His mother didn't know what it was, and told Aselfod to ask his father when he got home, which was to be soon. She added that he should wash up, and close down the house.

At dinner table, which shimmered like a mirage, Aselfod's father talked about his trip to Earth.

"It's just like what the Immortals say Mars looked like, forest, water, and _life_! Everywhere, there's life, its so amazing…" he would say a similar thing every time he came back from his monthly visits to the third planet.

When he had calmed down a bit, and had some synthesized elixir, Aselfod brought up the objects Tavish had dug up.

"Hey dad, Tavish has been digging holes in the back for a few days now, and I was wondering-"

"Oh yeah?" his father interrupted, with a bit of synthesized meat in his mouth, "Did he find anything?" His father mocked.

"Um, yeah, how did you know?"

"I can read minds, remember?" It was an old family joke; at least Aselfod thought it was old. His father laughed like he had said it for the first time.

"Anyway," started Aselfod again, "Here it is." He handed his father the dirt covered object. A grave face grew on Aselfod's father; he lost his comical mood, and spoke with a serious tone that even scared Elenfore.

"Where did you say Tavish was digging?"

"Out back, dad, he actually dug up a whole bunch."

"Show me tomorrow, and don't tell anyone about them, okay?"

Aselfod nodded, a little afraid.

"And by all means, don't touch them." He looked Aselfod straight in the eye. Frightened, Aselfod nodded again.

After class, Aselfod unplugged himself, and looked for his dad.

He was sitting in a shady junction of the house, whose walls seemed to behave like liquid crystal. He was reading a book, and was startled when Aselfod disturbed him.

"Um, dad?"

"I'm set, lead the way honey." He was much less solemn and grave than the night before.

"These are very interesting, son," he said, with a glint in his eye like he had found sudden inspiration. "They might be key to something the boys and I have been working on down at the office."

"Really? What are they?" Aselfod asked, he was perplexed by the way his father was running his quick dark fingers over the objects.

"The way they work was forgotten a long time ago, so, they're magic."

Aselfod's father quickly stood up and hurried off into the house, carrying one of the objects. He asked not to be disturbed as he walked into the tele-meeting room. He shut the door quietly.

He came out a half hour later, and seemed to have hundreds of things on his mind at once. He told his family kindly that men were coming tonight and were digging a big hole, and everything would be back to normal in the morning.

And it was, the only evidence off the Martians were foot prints, compression marks from the hover-carts and crafts, and a large patch of disturbed soil. Aselfod's father wouldn't tell them what the men had done; only that it was very important for everyone on the third and fourth planets.

The news report rocked both worlds, "Martians launch surprise attack upon Earth using a new type (or "advanced" when told on Earth news shows) of energy-gun. Thousands of Earthians (or "people" on Earth) have perished, millions more are expected to die as well. The people of Earth ("military forces") are unable to resist. Victory (defeat) seems inevitable…"


End file.
